DreamsI've been keeping a dream journal on a special Twitter account since I was 23 years old. You can read these raw forms, if you'd like: @IHadaDreamWhere. I'm going to be adapting 99 of them as microstories.

Saturdays (mezzofiction)

Missy’s MissionWith the help of a friend, a young woman searches a rogue planet for the rumored means of getting rid of her special time powers, since having them puts her in the crosshairs of a psychotic time traveling killer.

My name is Nick Fisherman III. It's not my real name, but that's not because I'm trying to hide from my former agency, or something. I named myself after someone I've known for most of my life, and he chose it in honor of his late best friend. I took up writing when I found myself failing 8th grade science, and realized I might never reach my dream of becoming a biochemist, a meteorologist, and a quantum physicist. I started developing my canon after a scouting trip to an island inspired what I thought would be my first novel. I founded this website upon the advice of many people, who told me I needed to get my work out there, and not wait for an agent to accept my manuscript. You can expect one new story every day. Weekdays are for microstories, which are one or two paragraphs long. They're usually only thematically linked, so you won't have to read one to understand another, but they do sometimes tell a combined story. Sundays are for my continuous longer story, The Advancement of Leona Matic, which I started in the beginning, and won't end until 2066. Saturdays are for long series, most of which take place in the same universe as Leona, and add to the larger mythology.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Microstory 554: Telescope Reveals Most Planets Aren’t Flat

Double rough scientist and enterprise leader, Golzar Germano has made one of the most important discoveries in recent history. When Germano was a child, he dreamed of being whatever he wanted to be, and rarely listened to what others told him. His parents were at a loss as to how to discipline their son. It seemed that, no matter what they said, he would always do the opposite. They eventually learned how this worked, and figured out a way to get him to fall in line by demanding he do the opposite, and letting him “defy” them. Upon growing up, Germano began to understand his own personality better, and decided to use his contrary attitude to his advantage. When he came of age, he went through the normal testing phases, and was told that he was a natural-born Warrior. This was unsatisfactory, what with him being a complete pacifist and all. Once again, he chose to go against the grain, and rough into a different suit. As a Creator, he studied all of the natural sciences, but found himself particularly fond of astrophysics. After a few years of working in his field, he had become bored with his life. He had only attained Mariner rank, and had very little interest in pursuing it further. He has had this to say about his decision to rough into a second suit, “I’ve never wanted to be like everyone else. Nor have I wanted to be special. I chose to not follow my suit, nor even try to trump into a higher rank of the suit I chose. Nor did I think I would be well equipped to handle the life of a double packer, which a lot of people assume I’m going for. Being a jack of all trades sounds nice, but it’s not for me. I have a wide range of interests, but that does not include all of them. I just want to be me.”

With his experience as a scientist, and now as a Leader, Germano went on to form his own company. He gathered the best scientists and support staff from all over the system. In fact, no one under the rank of Karek was allowed anywhere near his laboratories. He instructed his Creators to develop the most marketable inventions for his Providers to sell, and eventually, Majorwood Industries was one of the top names in electronics. His true passion, however, was still astrophysics. These inventions were really only tools used to gather enough capital to accomplish something else. He wanted to build a space telescope. Not only that, but he wanted to build the best telescope in the system. He called it TALON. Many of TALON’s predecessors were capable of determining the features of distant stars, but none was able to grasp the details of any orbiting planets. So far, the only exoplanets cataloged are not flat; they are spherical, news that will shock all physicists. Only around a hundred planets have so far been observed in the last few months, but Germano, and Majorwood, are confident enough to announce the fact that most, if not all other, planets are, in fact, spherical. The next question to answer now...is why? Why are we different? How did our flat planets come to be? After that, Golzar Germano has another question...how do we go to these fantastical round planets, and what would it be like to stand on them?